#BeccaToldMeTo campaign of kindness lives on in new book

A Moncton writer has released a new book chronicling the global kindness movement ignited by a Riverview teen fighting terminal brain cancer.

#BeccaToldMeTo: Spreading kindness, one hashtag at a time is a collection of social media posts from people who shared their good deeds to help Becca Schofield reach her bucket list goal of creating "a mass act of kindness."

The book's author, Jason Tremere, said the momentum of the campaign needed to be documented.

"I'm not one of those people who do random acts of kindness, and then go to social media and brag about it," Tremere told Information Morning Moncton on Thursday. "But what she created was a movement where it was not bragging, it's sharing the goodness in the world.

"That's what was different for me. When you start reading the personal stories, it's like, wow, there's a lot of goodness right here [in New Brunswick] and there's posts from the United States and other countries, even in the first 10 weeks."

​The book traces the movement back to one year ago, when in the span of about 10 weeks, more than 1,000 people posted their good deeds in honour of Schofield, who Riverview Coun. Tammy Rampersaud dubbed "our own personal Santa."

"You saw people giving turkeys to families in need," Tremere said. "There's posts in there about families who received turkeys and then gave them to someone else who was even more in need. Those stories are in there, and the thing is, no one will probably see those posts again.

"The one that struck me the most was about a mother and her seven year old kid who wanted to give away toys. Instead of leaving them in the toy box … they took it to a pediatrics unit at the hospital."

Large and small

Tremere said the acts were large and small — from paying for a coffee for the person next in line, to helping a newly arrived refugee buy a bus pass.

"Someone went to Shoppers Drug Mart and heard someone speaking Arabic and could hardly speak the language. … This person stepped forward, got them the best deal on the bus pass, paid for the pass, bought their two kids treats at the store and then got invited to their house for coffee."

'All over the map'

"I grabbed a tissue more than once … but there's some funny stuff, posts I laughed at the beginning and teared up at the end. It's all over the map."

Tremere said he's grown close to the Schofield family through the course of compiling the #BeccaToldMeTo good deeds.

Becca wrote the book's afterward, and her older sister Gabrielle designed the cover.

Their father, Darren was sitting next to Tremere when the book went live on the weekend.

"To have a book like this, at a time like this in the Christmas season is awesome," Tremere said.

Proceeds to family

The book is available on amazon.com for $16 US. An e-book is also on the way.

Once the costs of publishing book are paid off, all proceeds will go to the Schofield family.

Tremere said 150 books may also be available for sale at Chapters Dieppe a few days ahead of Christmas.